“…Such intraspecific variation in nymphal instar numbers is widespread across insect taxa and is found in most major orders, including those of hemimetabolous and holometabolous insects [ 20 ]. For example, in Blattaria, the numbers of nymphal instars in cockroaches, including B. germanica [ 18 , 35 , 36 , 37 , 38 , 39 ], B. asahinai [ 24 ], Diploptera punctata [ 18 , 40 , 41 ] and Periplaneta japonica [ 42 ], are variable. This intraspecific variability in the number of nymphal instars is influenced by factors such as temperature, photoperiod, humidity, nutrition, population density, genetics, and sex [ 20 ].…”